


complementary colours

by cherxnica



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 07:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17361479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherxnica/pseuds/cherxnica
Summary: in which toni's destiny is written across her skin





	complementary colours

Antoinette Topaz stands awkwardly outside the doors of her new school, Riverdale High, her arms crossed and her back leaning against the brick wall. She looks out at the parking lot, which resembles that of a ghost town in its desolate state, save her lonesome motorcycle, a Volvo and a cherry red convertible.

Toni already feels out of place here.

She’s arrived half an hour earlier than she planned, promising to meet Sweet Pea and Fangs at the doors at nine o’clock.

The tattoo on her upper thigh itches at the thought of her best friends. She lifts her skirt not even an inch to reveal someone’s name inked into her skin. The name was unfamiliar to her, a person she’d never met in her entire lifetime.

When Toni and the rest of the world’s population was born, two names had been written in what seemed to be permanent ink, somewhere on their bodies. It was told that one of the names was the one you were destined to fall in love with, a soulmate of some sort, and the other the exact opposite, a person already destined to hate you. Both of Toni’s names were rather feminine, and so when Toni was young, she’d figured that she was destined to fall in love with another woman.

Her second name took up residence just under her breast, right on one of her ribs. She was thankful that both her names were subtle, whereas she’d heard of people even being born with their names scribbled across their foreheads or the palms of their hands.

When Sweet Pea suggested looking the names up on Facebook, Toni had refused in hopes that she’d come across them on her own accord.

 Toni’s best friends, Sweet Pea and Fangs were each other’s soulmates. They’d met in kindergarten, and formed a strong bond, which evolved into love in their freshman year of high school. The two boys had a relationship that Toni envied, one she wanted herself with her own soulmate, who ever that may be.

Before the closure of her old school, South Side High, at least three quarters of the students had met their soulmates, some even their enemies. The school was a constant battle ground, and Toni was convinced this school wouldn’t be much different. The South Side had been bought anonymously the previous year, and then shut down by the owner the next week, leaving Toni with only one option: Riverdale.

“Oi, Topaz!” A sudden shout from across the lot startles Toni and brings her back to the present. She notices that the lot is almost full to brim of cars, and other students rushing past her to get into the building. One pushes through, and almost completely knocks Toni to the ground when someone catches her.

“Thank God for you, Sweet Pea.” She breathes before pressing the creases out of her tartan skirt.

“Thank my parents for not using a condom, actually. I yelled out to you.” He looks at her quizzically, possibly wondering if Toni’s off her rocker. Fangs stands just behind him, holding Sweet Pea’s hand. Toni notices that they’re both wearing their Serpent jackets, a sign to everyone that they’re a part of the gang that all but runs the South Side of town. Toni, Sweet Pea and Fangs had been a part of the gang since they were fourteen, when they had no where else to go. Toni thought of the opportunity as the last chance to get a second family, and she’s thankful that that is what she got.

Toni nods to the boys and motions for them to go inside. A few strides down the hall leads the trio the student lounge, which is now buzzing with voices and cell phone chimes.

“Jughead Jones,” Sweet Pea picks out a boy from the back of the room, dressed in a denim jacket and grey beanie. His black curls peek out just underneath his beanie, and his dark eyes are darting around the room to find the person who’d just called his name. Toni instantly recognises him as an old middle school friend from the South Side. She’d forgotten he’d transferred here.

“Heard you were coming to Riverdale, Sweet Pea,” He smiles and shakes his old friends hand. The bottom of his tattoo peaks out under his Jacket sleeves. _Cooper_ is inscribed on his wrist, Toni doesn’t see the first name.

A petite blonde girl latches onto Jughead’s side, her hair pulled back into a pony tail so tight it must be giving her a headache. She’s wearing a pink sweater and honestly, she’s the exact opposite of Jughead. Toni assumes this is the Cooper girl.

“Toni, Fangs,” He says, nodding his head gently, “I missed you guys.”

Toni smiles in response.

“Uh guys, this is Betty Cooper. My soulmate.” Jughead smiles wide when he introduces her, proudly showing her off to his middle school friends. She shakes Betty’s hand and notices _Forsythe Pendleton Jones III_ tattooed on the palm of her hand. Toni tries to remember the story behind Jughead’s bizarre nick name, but her memory fails her.

Her friends carry on with conversation, but Toni’s attention has been diverted to the opposite corner of the room, where stood the most alluring girl Toni had possibly ever seen. She was giggling with what seemed to be most if not the entire, Riverdale football team. She throws her head back, revealing her pearl clad neck. Her ebony curls bounce as she laughs.

Though Toni was a firm believer in the fact that staring was rude no matter in what context it may take place, she couldn’t tear her eyes away just yet. Toni watches on as the girl runs her perfectly manicured fingers through her hair. While she isn’t listening in on the conversation the girl’s participating in, Toni observes her lips moving as she speaks.

The words _Veronica Cecilia Lodge_ begin to burn her skin under her breast like a branding iron.

The sudden shriek of the bell causes the girl to jump, too engrossed in one of the other boys’ antics to notice the time. And she’s suddenly made aware that she’s the centre of Toni’s attention. The two girls lock eyes from across the room, but Toni is saved from embarrassment when Sweet Pea drags her out of the student lounge before they’re late to their first homeroom class.

When they arrive, Toni is thankful when she realises that she won’t have to stand up and introduce herself, like she did back in middle school, where she proceeded to make a fool of herself by mis-pronouncing her own name.

Toni takes her seat, to the left of Fangs, as the teacher calls the roll. She immediately notices that the Riverdale classrooms are a stark contrast to those of the South Side. The desk she sits at is squeaky-clean, there’s no gum underneath or engravings of past students to bee seen. She feels dirty sitting in this room, like she doesn’t deserve to be seated here.

“What do you have next?” Fangs whispers to her, pulling out his schedule.

“Biology,” she replies, before the bell rings again.

“Sweets has Psychics, and I have Chem. You’re on your own, T,” he says before waltzing out the room.  Toni follows him out the door and watches as he turns left down the hall. She continues straight, where she finds Betty Cooper at her locker.

“Hey, Betty, could you please show me the way to the Bio lab if it’s not too much to ask?”

Betty’s face lights up and her eyes sparkle.

“Of course, I have Biology too so it’s no trouble!”

The pair walk in awkward silence until Betty asks, “so you knew Juggie from the South Side, right?”

“Yeah, we grew up together. He was in our group, I guess.”

“Cool,” Betty picks up that Toni isn’t one for small talk, so the silence resumes until they arrive at the lab. Betty promptly takes her seat, unfortunately next to a tall brunette boy, leaving Toni to stop and look around the crowded room for a seat of her own.

She pauses when a blaze of orange catches her eye. There sits a red headed girl, in the middle of the room, tapping away on her phone. Toni watches as her mouth twists into a soft smile.

 _Cheryl Marjorie Blossom_ burns underneath Toni’s skirt. Toni begins to walk over, eyeing the spare seat next to the girl. Sensing someone’s gaze, she looks up at Toni and her smile grows wider.

Toni smiles back before the girl returns to her texting. Toni catches a glimpse of many heart emojis but doesn’t read any of the girl’s messages.

Suddenly the girl puts her phone down and turns her body towards Toni.

“Hi, I’m Cheryl Blossom. Resident It-girl here at Riverdale High. Toni, right?” Cheryl is overly enthusiastic, but kindness drips from her scarlet-painted lips.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me. It’s lovely to meet you,” the response comes out with more sarcasm than Toni intends, but Cheryl continues speaking anyway.

“Likewise! So, how’s your morning been?” Cheryl asks as Toni takes her seat and throws her backpack onto the bench.

“Okay I guess, not super enthralling.” Toni says before adding, “Everyone has been incredibly nice though.”

Cheryl hums as a reply when the teacher walks in. 

“Good morning students. Welcome to those of you who are new, I’m Mr Thomas and I teach Biology here at Riverdale High. Now if you open your textbooks to page…” Mr Thomas rambles on for a while before Toni’s attention is diverted to the note that has been passed from Cheryl.

_Mr Thomas is a bore. Not a very good teacher, either, so just read the textbook and do your homework and you’ll do fine. One thing he despises though is talking. He hears you and boom! Instant detention. Who else do you have?_

Toni reads the note attentively, analysing Cheryl’s elegant script before scribbling a reply.

_Mrs Loughry for English, Ms Sallow for World History, Mr Dankworth for Algebra, Mrs Bisset for French and of course, Mr Thomas for Biology._

Toni slips the note back and watches Cheryl as she reads and starts to write again. Her nails are long and red, Toni is curious as to how she can even hold a pen.

_Mrs Loughry is an old hag and can barely hear. Just be nice. Ms Sallow is lovely, everyone gets along with her. Mr Dankworth talks a ridiculous amount about his children and rarely finishes a topic. Never ask Mrs Bisset to go the bathroom in English or she’ll ban you from going all year. And, obviously I warned you about Thomas._

_Thanks for the tips, how do you know all this?_

_Experience, mostly. By the looks of it we only have Biology and French together._

_That’s a shame, would’ve been nice to have a friend in every class._

_Are you trying out for any extra curriculars?_

_I wasn’t going to, but then again, I haven’t really seen what the school has to offer._

_Oh, you just have to audition for the River Vixens this afternoon! I’m the squad captain, so you’ve got yourself an in._

_Cheerleading? Why the heck not, I used to love to dance as a kid._

 

Four hours later, Toni finds herself in the gymnasium clad in a cheerleading uniform watching a dozen girls compete for a spot in the Vixens. Toni stands idly at the front of the line. She’s the last to audition, though Cheryl had told her in Biology that she’d already earned herself a place in the squad, the dance was just for show.

When everyone begins to clap, signalling that it’s her turn, Toni begins to sweat.

“Toni Topaz,” Cheryl’s call rings throughout the gymnasium and everyone’s eyes are suddenly on her.

Toni walks up to the middle of the room and as the music starts to play, she starts the routine that Cheryl had taught her before auditions. Thankfully, when Toni slides her body across the floor, she doesn’t somehow trip and make an idiot out of herself. Her audition is flawless, and she gains the loudest applause of the afternoon.

“Toni, I didn’t think you’d be one for cheerleading,” Betty Cooper walks over with a familiar looking girl in tow.

“Yeah, Cheryl told me I should join, so...” Toni replies but doesn’t take her eyes off the girl.

“Oh, Toni, this is Veronica Lodge,” Betty exclaims. Toni then realises this is the same girl she’d been staring at that same morning in the student lounge.

“Hi,” she beams.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to get acquainted.” Betty says and heads out the door toward the locker room.

Now alone, the two girls stand awkwardly next to each other.

“So, Antoinette, how’s Riverdale treating you?”

Toni smiles in response to Veronica calling her by her full name, knowing it must be inked somewhere on Veronica’s skin.

“Everyone’s really nice, it’s certainly better that the South Side.”

“Do you miss it though?”

“Not particularly.”

The girls continue conversation as if they’ve known each other their entire lives. Soon, they reach the now semi-deserted hall after changing in the locker rooms. Betty had waited for them, but two boys now stand next to her. One tall and muscular and the other much shorter and skinny.

“Kevin, Moose and I were going to head to Pop’s for a milkshake, you two want to join?”

Veronica agrees immediately but Toni is still wondering why on Earth anyone would call their child Moose.

“Uh, sorry, I have plans this afternoon, but I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Toni says as she readjusts her the strap of her backpack.

“Oh okay, see you later then,” Betty waves as she and her friends walk down the hall towards the parking lot. Toni follows close behind and climbs onto the motorcycle. She’s one of the last to leave. She kicks her bike to life and drives straight out of the lot.

Toni had planned to visit her father after her first day, to tell him all about it. She hadn’t seen him in a few weeks and thought today would be a good time to see him, a few hours before visiting would close for the day.

She pulls up to a tall, grey building lined with barbed wire. _Shankshaw Prison_  is printed in bold across the bricks.

 Toni’s father had been here for years, held prisoner for the murder of mobster Papa Poutine, a crime he didn’t commit. Convinced he was being framed, he tried to explain this to the judge, but they refused to listen, and he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole.  Toni was only young, but never believed that her dad would be capable of killing another. They took him away, and Toni was left with her only living relative, her grandfather, who lived in the trailer park of Riverdale.

Walking into the building, she gave her name to a large, beefy woman who led her to the visiting area- where her dad sit behind a wall of glass. Jacob Topaz was a tall man with rich dark skin, a full beard and kind hazel eyes. Toni could never picture this man murdering someone.

She sat and picked up the phone,

“Hey dad,” she said with a smile.

“Hey kiddo! How was your first day at your new school? Make any friends?” He asked cheerily, though Toni knew he was far from cheerful, sitting in this place.

“Wonderful, I made heaps of friends. Everyone is really nice.”

“That’s fantastic kid, I bet you’ll be friends with the whole school in a few weeks.” He said, smiling at his only daughter.

“I doubt that, but I did meet the people who belong to the names on me,” Toni forced out, not sure if she was ready to have this conversation with her father.

“Both? I bet that was quite a shock. Is your soulmate a nice dude?”

“Yeah, but I don’t actually know which one which is,” she almost whispers.

“How is that possible?”

“Dad, both my names are girls,” Toni rushes out, itching Cheryl’s name under her skirt.

“Oh kiddo, don’t you worry. If you’re happy, I’m happy. I don’t care who you fall in love with as long as they take care of you,” he says into the phone.

Toni sighs, and her eyes begin to brim with tears before the siren goes off, meaning that their visit is over.

“Thanks, dad. I’ll come around as soon as I can,” she yells out to him as he’s escorted back to his cell.

 

Three hours later, Toni is sitting at a table along with Sweet Pea, Fangs, Jughead and Betty, in a bar across town called the Whyte Wyrm, the Serpents regular hang out. The boys had invited Jughead to come out for a drink and he’d happily obliged if it meant he’d get to see his middle school friends again.

“I can’t believe you joined that stupid Vixen squad,” Sweet Pea says laughing, slapping his hands down on the table.

“I can, T’s always been a prissy little princess” Fangs teases. Jughead and Betty chuckle, considering Toni isn’t usually one for tiaras and glitter.

“I’ll say, you did get chummy with Cheryl real quick,” Betty chimes in, taking a sip from her ginger ale. (She had refused to touch alcohol, convinced her mother would smell it on her breath a mile away).

“We were paired together in Biology,” Toni says, not mentioning that Cheryl was possibly her soulmate.

“Ah, well, Cheryl and that girlfriend of hers rule the school,” Jughead scoffs.

“Girlfriend?” Toni had heard no mention of Cheryl having a girlfriend and was now very curious.

“You didn’t know? She’s been dating Josie McCoy for over a year.”

This information was brand new to Toni, and she wondered why Cheryl hadn’t told her.

The conversation topic changes, but Toni stays quiet, thinking about how she managed to befriend a person she was destined to hate, whether that be Cheryl or Veronica.

“Toni,” Betty catches her attention when the boys leave to get another round, “so, Veronica?”

“She’s cute, thanks for introducing me,” Toni says smiling.

“Well, I knew she was one of your names, so I thought it had it be done sooner rather than later.”

“You knew?”

“Yeah, V and I shared our names a while ago after I started dating Jug,” Betty says,” she’s thankful she met you, she really likes you by the sounds of it.”

“I mean, I hope so,” Toni says with a chuckle.

The boys return, and they gossip about their new school and new friends for the rest of the night, until splitting off to go home. Toni hasn’t had a better day in her life.

  

**Author's Note:**

> hi hi! hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this fic, one i actually hope to complete this time. lots of planning has gone into this so i hope you, reader, stick around so i'm motivated to continue.  
> as always, a kudos and a comment is appreciated.  
> follow me on tumblr @cherxnica.


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